


Silent Nod

by WolfAndHound_Archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Post-Sirius in Azkaban, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 13:24:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5930056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfAndHound_Archivist/pseuds/WolfAndHound_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James had rejected them years ago, which had driven a spike through everything they were, and everything they could have hoped to be.  Can they now come together again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silent Nod

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Lassenia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Wolf and Hound](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Wolf_and_Hound), which was created to make stories posted to the Sirius_Black_and_Remus_Lupin Yahoo! mailing list easier to find. However, even though I still love the fandom, I am no longer active in it and do not have the time to maintain it. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in December 2015. I posted an announcement with Open Doors, but we may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Wolf and Hound collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/wolfandhound/profile).

TITLE: Silent Nod

AUTHOR: Maple Tide

E-MAIL: mapletide@fastmail.fm

DISCLAIMER: The characters involved that are from the Harry Potter universe are the property of J. K. Rowling and all associated publishers (including Scholastic Press, Bloomsburg, and Raincoast). I'm just borrowing them for my own nefarious purposes. The plot involved, any stray characters that may crop up, and any other things that don't belong to her belong to me. I'm not seeking to make any money off of this; rather I'm going it for fun and for the chance to get it out of my own imagination before it drives me even more insane. Understood? =) Good.

RATING: NC-17

CATEGORY: Angst, Slash Romance

KEYWORDS: Sirius, Remus, reunion

SPOILERS: PoA, GoF (maybe)

ARCHIVE: Marauder Me, Azkaban's Lair, Snitchfiction, Fandomination. Anybody else, ask? :)

FEEDBACK: Please? I can be reached at mapletide@fastmail.fm

SUMMARY: James had rejected them years ago, which had driven a spike through everything they were, and everything they could have hoped to be. Now, with the world on the brink of war, is it time to place their strengths together, and come together as they should have years ago?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I don't typically see James like I portrayed him in this story, and it was an interesting challenge, to make myself see him like that. I couldn't get the idea out of my head, so here it is.

**~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~**

It had been years since they'd even talked like this, and now, Remus Lupin didn't know quite what to think.

He watched as Sirius ran a hand through his thick black hair, and watched him watch. No matter what else, he looked a fair sight better than he had when he'd arrived three days ago; the journey from Hogwarts hadn't been an easy one. Judging by how he looked when arriving on his doorstep, Sirius hadn't really slowed down much until he had gotten there. Then, over tea -- the substance that he had always abided by for Remus's benefit rather than his own -- he had told Remus that which he had already known. He had silently passed over the table the owl that had come from Dumbledore, and their eyes had met in the sort of silent communication that they had always had, and that continued even after everything.

Even after James's rejection of who they were.

Remus had forced his mind from that almost as soon as it occurred to him. It was something that, even after years past, still stung, still hurt, and burned somewhere inside him. It shouldn't have mattered so much. He and Sirius had come together near the end of their sixth year, and there had been stolen moments away from the rest of the Marauders. They wanted it to be their secret, they didn't want to share it, for fear that one of them would steal away that which they had found together.

As it so happened, their fear had been valid. It just hadn't been from the source they had expected.

Peter, he had come from a rural area that hadn't had much exposure to such ideas, so he would have expected it from him. After all that had happened, Remus found a reaction of distaste to even think of him, but he had been a part of their group as much as any other, and it was only fair to include him; ironically, at the time, he would have been their most steadfast support. It still bothered him that he couldn't tell when things had started to change, when things had started to go wrong. Even Lily, who had come from a Muggle family, he would have expected this reaction from.

At one time, he would have suspected Hope Foster of Ravenclaw, who was close to their group without being a part of it, of harbouring such thoughts, just because he didn't know her all that well. Sirius had giggled himself sick at the thought, when he had confided it, and muttered in his ear about she and Dari. Dariele, whose family was so open-minded that many thought their brains would come tumbling out of their skulls, and who he thought would have told him everything. She always had before, but Sirius had accidentally walked in on them snogging near the Astronomy Tower, and had known about it even before then. Exactly how, Remus wasn't certain.

No, it had been none of these sources at all. It had been James.

Sirius had been growing more and more agitated with the necessity of keeping the secret from James, and Remus had understood. After all, the two boys had been close all through their childhood, had barely kept a secret from each other in their entire friendship, and now, Sirius's life had totally changed, and he couldn't say anything. Their relationship had unfolded in such a series of twists and turns that Remus couldn't say exactly when it had become something more than friendship, exactly, just that it had.

They were still friends, but after that, they were **more**.

When they had told James, it had gone totally wrong, he had blown up, and yelled at Sirius about disgrace. There had been a flood of hurt across that face, and then it had been as though he had closed a door in James's face. Disgrace, and disgust, and anger that went nearly to rage flooded from that voice. Remus had been standing behind James, he remembered clearly, and his and Sirius's eyes had met, and in a swift moment, they had known.

They would take it back. They would take it all back.

That was the moment that Remus felt his heart break.

Sirius had given a silent nod, a nod that was more mental than physical even, and Remus had bowed his head, allowing himself that moment to grieve for what had been lost, before smirking, putting on that Marauder grin, and proceeded to help Sirius put on the show of their lives. Pretending the entire time it didn't hurt, that it didn't mean anything to hear that rejection, they managed to weave a story around James that he actually believed. He believed and was furious with them, but the disgust was gone, faded away into annoyance.

Later, after the suspicions had faded, when they could take a risk to go off together without thinking that James would follow behind them with the invisibility cloak to spy on them, to hear what they would say, they had, for one last time before letting it all go. Letting everything go because in the times that were coming, the relationships were the most important; they couldn't risk it, it was too dangerous, and even more so for Remus, given his lycanthrophy. While Sirius might not see that every time he looked at him, it was there every time Remus looked at himself. So he remembered, and let it go. He let it all go.

At least, that's what he told himself he was doing.

Yet, every so often, on a night out with the rest of the Marauders, with a wine glass dangling from one hand, filled with Firewhiskey that dripped to the table unnoticed, Sirius would look at him. He would stare at him through eyes veiled away from the sight of James and Peter who were too pissed to notice the pure sex dripping from that gaze. That same gaze that he would deliver upon Sirius when they were at the school, and he could hide behind the reading glasses, and as Sirius was walking away, he would stop and turn so that their glances would meet.

They only fooled themselves. They never let it go.

The reason why they never lived together after school was out, why they forced themselves to go separate ways was present in that. If they lived together, it would start again, and sometimes, miles away from where Sirius must have been, according to the internal sensor imbedded in his brain, Remus could almost feel how it would be. The raw, naked hunger, the rough sex against the wall, the clawing, the biting, the screaming as they finally gave in to something that they had denied themselves for too long.

He kept himself circumspect; even on those nights when he let his mind go with the fantasy, follow it to its inevitable conclusion, he would bite into the arm he had thrown across his face to keep from howling Sirius's name.

Then everything had exploded, and he had heard Sirius's name in connection with it all. In his mind, Remus wondered if Sirius had finally broken, finally snapped under the strain of it all. Then he heard that Sirius was responsible for Peter's murder, and was caught at a loss; it seemed so unlike his former lover to join the Death Eaters, but yet, it seemed that was exactly what he had done.

It was with that knowledge that he had hidden himself away from the world until forced out by an invitation by Albus Dumbledore; an invitation that held his heart's desire wrapped in it. To teach, to share the things he had learned in his favourite subject with those who needed to learn it in a world that was growing more and more uncertain.

It just so happened that his other heart's desire came with the package.

For a year, his mind whirled and spun with the news, and now, Sirius Black was sitting here across the table from him, and offering a lopsided smile as he announced that he had something to tell him. Something that he had been able to tell was on the other man's mind in the three days he had been there, but that had gone unspoken in that time. Until now, that is. Remus watched him, and under the ravages of Azkaban, under the uncertainty and fear, and the years betewen them, there was something of that old look in his eyes.

The fire and light of silver and blue behind the filter of lowered eyelids and the whisper of a smile.

"Remus," he said again, as he had said at the start, "I have something I need to tell you."

He fought a shiver at that tone; whether he was realising it or not, he was using that old voice. However, he tried not to think about it, and instead offered a smirk and a question: "Why do I get the feeling that we would need more than tea for this conversation?"

"Do you think you'll need more than tea? You never used to, when you talked to me."

'We never used to need words either,' Remus thought with a smile. Perhaps it was written on his face, because Sirius's expression seemed to answer with 'Who says we need them now?'

"Well," Sirius started and he drew circles on the surface of the table with the condensation left over from the cup of tea. "You know, since the last time we talked, Remus, I've had a lot of time. Time to heal a little, time to watch over Harry, and time to think. A **lot** of time to think."

"I can imagine, Sirius. What sort of conclusions did you come to?"

Sirius's face shot up, and there was a hint of the old mischief lurking in his eyes. Remus looked over the top of his glasses at him as though he was trying to suggest that he behave. Sirius looked as though he was going to laugh, but instead let out a long breath, and shook his head. "As I was saying..."

"Yes, Siri?"

"I'm probably never going to be entirely the person you knew back in school, the person you fell in love with," the words came out in a rush, as though he was afraid he'd convince himself out of it if he left them unsaid. "I'm still haunted, I still wake up with nightmares, and I'm so uncertain of myself that I can't believe that I"m the same person I was then. I was never unconfident then. I thought I could take on the world and win. You remember."

"I do, but you forget, I'm probably not the same person you fell in love with either, Sirius."

Sirius closed his eyes in an almost relieved expression before opening them again and shooting him a glance that acknowledged his point. Only then did he continue: "The one thing I never forgot was you. The wound was all over the place, and James's rejection was even worse," he laughed, and it was a harsh and bitter thing. "I thought so much of Jamie until then. Then all of a sudden, it was like the boy I had known all my life was a stranger to me, and I had failed him. It hurt like nothing I've ever known before or since to do what I did, to go back on our commitments just because he didn't approve. I know all the reasons, and I'm not saying it would have been wise to change things, but..."

"But?"

"I hated it. I hated every minute of it. It wasn't fair to you, to me, or even to Jamie. But we all needed each other then, or else I would have fought it. You know I would have, you know I was going to fight it then. You remember, Remus. You remember, just as vividly as I do."

To deny it would have been a lie. So he didn't.

"I couldn't believe it," Remus murmured. "James had been so accepting of my lycanthrophy, it caught me totally off guard. I never knew it was coming. I think Peter knew, I think Peter caught how we looked at each other, and--"

"Rat bastard. Probably used it to drive us further apart," Sirius growled.

Remus reached across the table to him and placed one hand over both of his. "Sirius, we will get him. We will. But he was a part of our group, and we loved him as a brother once, and as far as we know, there was a time when he felt the same. I think, had we chosen a different path, a different way of dealing with things, he would have supported us. He would have defended us to James. While that person might be long dead and gone, he existed once, and in this instance, he wasn't the one that hurt us. That came later."

Sirius exhaled sharply. "I know, but..."

"Just let it go for now…"

He got a lopsided smile in return, "Do you know, Remus, I think that was my first mistake. "

Remus quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Letting it go, I mean. It's like I said, Remus, I've had a lot of time to think about things, and I don't know, things might have changed, but I have to tell you this."

"Tell me, then."

The challenge in his voice was clear, and Sirius's chin tilted upwards in recognision of it. Something crackled in the air between them, an electricity that had been missing for far too long. Remus found himself basking in it, despite himself, and hoping it would stay. There was something in the shared looks, the ones like they were giving each other now, that he never could let go of, even for the better of the group.

Just because it had been the better for the group hadn't necessarily meant that it was the better for himself. For either of them.

"I have many regrets on the path we've taken," he murmured, returning his attention to the patterns he was creating on the table. "Maybe the time was wrong when we were younger, maybe we did what we needed to do, but that time has passed. Maybe even now, James realises the wrong he's done us, but I can't say I care what he thinks anymore. He was my closest friend, my dearest friend, but a real friend would not have forced either of us into the decision we had to make.

"We're different, maybe," and his tone came quicker now, "and maybe you've come to realise that you no longer feel the same as we did when we were in school. I can accept that. What I **cannot** accept is the fact that we're going to keep going on in the same patterns that were dictated to retain a friend who could not respect our decisions, a friend who possibly might not have died if we had been close enough still to not doubt one another."

"Are you angry with me, Sirius, for insisting?"

"No. You had your reasons and I knew what they were, each and every one. You just looked at me and I knew more than if you had spent an entire afternoon laying it out for me to see. It was always like that. Always. I just don't see why we should continue in that sort of lie. That is, if you still love me like you did. I'm making presumptions that I shouldn't, but I have to know. I had to clear the air, and if Jamie's spirit somehow still holds the same prejudices he held when we were young, then he can come strike me down with lightning for all I care.

"Do you know, Remus, I told myself I was going to let you go? Hundreds of times while we were at school, I thought I could. Then the firelight would hit your hair a certain way, or you'd give me that look that could melt the most solid of ice over the top of the glasses you wore, and I knew I couldn't do it. James's voice, his disgust, that haunted me in Azkaban nearly as much as the reality of his murder, the knowing it was my fault. I was never allowed to forget it, not for a single moment, and it only strengthened my resolve."

"Most people break in Azkaban..." Remus's lips were shadowed with the slightest hint of a smile, "but you found a way to make yourself stronger. I--"

"Don't even start," and with a lunge, their positions were reversed and his hands were caught between Sirius's. Those eyes had his in a hold, with a look that was caught between Azkaban horror and a desperate need to have him listen, just listen. "Don't even do that to yourself. I'm just glad you never saw it, and that you never saw what I became when I was there. By the time I broke out, it was better. Not by much, but it was better. I wouldn't have come to you then, I was too much of a wreck, I was too motivated by revenge. Only after... after, did it fade enough, did it heal enough so that I felt I could come to you. But sweet Merlin, I never wanted to bring you the news I did three days ago..."

"I knew though. We both did,," Remus murmured. "And we may not be the same people, and we may have more scars than either of us could have known then, but, Sirius, there's something I have to confide in you as well."

"Yes?" he asked.

"I chose you -- **we** chose you -- when I was sixteen years old. A mere child among wizards, and there were risks. There were risks that you wouldn't feel the same way, that I had made the wrong choice, but I never looked back from then. I chose you, and I could have chosen again, but I didn't. That would have been the easy way, and choosing you in the first place wouldn't have been easy if one of us had been female. Even without James's... unfortunate reaction, it never would have been easy."

"We never fooled ourselves into thinking it would be," Sirius retorted.

"I chose you because I fell in love with you, and perhaps it was foolish, but the one thing it never managed was to be wrong. I never could make myself believe that."

"But the question is, are you still?"

Remus smiled, and he gave him one of those looks over the top of the glasses he still wore. Sirius drew in a sharp breath as he responded with, "I wouldn't have told you any of this if I wasn't."

"You wouldn't tease an old wizard beyond his prime, would you?"

"Padfoot..."

"Yes, Moony?"

"Neither of us are old, and I doubt either of us are beyond our prime."

"I'm up for a challenge," a purely wicked smile crossed those lips, "if you are."

The only warning Sirius got was that elegantly arched eyebrow and an enigmatic smile. Then Remus had risen from the table and walked across to stand in front of him. He reached out and pulled the other man out of the chair by the front of his robes.

"Let's see how up for the challenge I am, shall we?"

Then he slanted his lips over Sirius's.

A low growl started in the back of his throat as he felt those lips part beneath his probing tongue. He remembered the old dreams, about how there would be biting and screaming as they took each other; somehow, this was more gentle, but the memory, and the desire hovered at the back of his mind as he relearned that taste. The taste that he had never wholly managed to erase from his memory. Not that he'd really tried.

There was a low groan in response, and Remus pushed him backwards until his back was flat against the wall. Sirius squirmed and arched against him a little, tunnelling fingers through hair and scraping against his scalp with ragged fingernails that still managed to send a shiver down his spine. After long moments gave way to the need for breath, Sirius tore away with a growl, and looked at him with those eyes, **those** eyes, and Remus knew where it was going to lead.

And knew that he would go quite happily; it was, of course, the whisper of thought that pressed against the back of his mind, the whisper of thought that had never left entirely, even during the lost years when he would have tortured himself for harbouring such thoughts about a known traitor. The traitor that had never been was now standing in front of him with that look, and those eyes, and he growled a little again.

"Do you know," Sirius said then, in a low tone that was little more than a rumble of sound, "I don't know if I was expecting this. Any of this," and then that voice dropped lower, "much less being able to respond to you like I wanted to."

"And how did you want to respond to this?"

There was a smirk then, and those hands crept downward towards his hips. There was a firm grasp taken, and a pull that brought their lower bodies closer together. Remus groaned and held himself steady by wrapping his hands around Sirius's shoulders as he felt the matching hardness grinding against his own.

"Something like that."

Remus shivered, and licked his lips. There was a low growl in response and his control broke. His hand slid under Sirius's robes and grasped his hard cock in a firm grasp. There was a grunt, and his lover -- his **mate** \-- arched into him. He leaned in and muttered against his lips, "This is the reason we didn't live together years ago. This is the reason. Because we would have avoided each other and it would have built, until we came together, biting and screaming."

"Wanted to," he growled and bared that neck for Remus's perusal. "Wanted to, so bad, a hundred times, a thousand times, before Azkaban, and after."

"And now."

"Sweet Merlin, yes."

Then Remus took avail of that exposed neck, moving in closer, tighter as he left teasing nips that he soothed with a tongue while tearing at the robes, removing them until there was nothing to hold him back from what he wanted most to do to him right then. Taste. Remember the taste, remember the feel of Sirius arching against him as he took a nipple between his teeth, biting slightly before letting it go and laving it with his tongue. Then he started all over again.

After a few moments, he moved downwards, murmuring to himself in that same silent language all along that while Sirius had put on some of the muscle he had lost, there was still too much of bone under the skin. With lips and tongue he counted the ribs, laved the thin layer of muscle that ran along his abdomen, and with no warning, plunged his tongue into the tempting navel that beckoned to him, all the while, feeling that hard length waiting for his attention.

Then the babbling started, and he had never had the time to render himself immune to it.

"Oh take. Please take. I want you, need you to taketaketake **take** , break me open, make me scream..." there was a pause, and an almost growl issued forth.

Remus growled in response to that, and rose to his feet. There was a startled look in Sirius's eyes, but he didn't ask questions as he was taken by the hand and dragged out of the kitchen. Without thinking to slow down, Remus muttered, "We're going to finish this, Sirius, the way it should have been finished years ago. So many years ago. And I don't care for my first time with you since we were sixteen to be shoved against the wall."

"Too old to be shoved against the wall?"

Remus stopped then, then he smiled. "No. Not that. I'm just going to bend you over the bed and take you that way."

"I remember..." came the hoarse whisper. "I remember what that felt like."

Remus shut his eyes against that tone. It was deep, dark, and seemed to know all the secrets he'd kept hidden for so many years. Then again, it did, and that was part of the appeal; there was no one who knew him better than that. He let out a soft noise, and moved forward again, except he didn't have to pull Sirius behind him, becuase he could feel him following without the need for direct contact.

Except he wanted it. He wanted it bad.

Upon entering the room, he found the tables turned, and himself pressed against the wall. There was bites against neck and lips before his lips parted and that tongue swept inside again. Hips thrust a rhythm against his own and as those lips tore away desperately, he threw his head back and let them attach to his neck once again.

Remus reached down, took a grasp on those hips hard enough to leave bruises, and held him tight against him. Just then, there was a twist of Sirius's upper torso, and he managed to deliver a nip to one nipple, a nip that had him thrusting sharply into that body he knew so very well. There was a long sound then, equal parts whine, groan, and pure animalistic growl.

"Siri..." the name was growled out between harsh pants. "Why am I still wearing robes?"

"Because--" A tongue swept out to wet dry lips, "because you haven't bothered removing them?"

"You take them..."

"I don't--"

"Fuck it, Sirius. Rip them."

"Remus--"

" **Rip them!** "

Then there was the sound of fabric tearing away, and Sirius had dropped to his knees. All he could do was tunnel his fingers through that hair and hold on for the ride as Sirius took him into his mouth, and proved once again how deep he could take him. All the way, it felt, and there was nothing more in the world than this. That's all there needed to be, for now, as the rest of the world had taken a convenient time to vanish.

"Siri..."

"Mmmm..." the sound vibrated around him and he thrust harder into that willing mouth.

"Not..."

Then there was a wet, smacking sound as Sirius allowed him to fall from his mouth, and despite his protestations, he wanted the feel of that welcoming heat around him again. Then his mind reminded him of the one better, what it felt like to sink deep inside his mate's body, and he growled before pulling them both over to the bed. Sirius tumbled onto it, his legs spread wide, head lowered, shaking arms bracing him upwards.

The entire posture screamed, "Take me, I'm yours," and Remus had every intention of obeying that directive.

He approached the bed, approached his lover, and started by tracing lovebites down that spine that revealed itself far too easily. Food, exercise, and this -- oh, yes, plenty of this -- would take care of that. His hands were back on those hips as he teased that opening he knew so well. There was a groan, and he delved further inside. Sirius helped him as he arched back against him, into that, and helped him as he found that particular pleasure point that froze his lover for a moment. After a moment, the garbled nonsense started again, only it wasn't so much nonsense this time.

"Enough, **enough**. Just..." and then there was a groan as Remus stopped fighting it and pressed himself against that entrance, gritting his teeth as he remembered to slide in slowly. Long time, he reminded himself. It's been a long time, after all.

"So long," Sirius echoed his thoughts unconsciously. " **Too** long."

Once inside, he couldn't maintain control, and Sirius was begging him to lose it, besides. They moved together in a rhythm he had dreamed about, he had remembered, and was so much better than all of that. Their talking, which had been sporatic over the past couple of moments, became even more so, and was limited to requests, then demands, to move harder, faster, rougher. More. Remus took, and was taken in again by something he was never entirely able to forget.

When finally the pleasure stretched through to near pain, and he had no more control over the hard, jerky thrusts of his hips, he let out a low growl and bit into his lover's shoulder. Sirius tensed at that, and a long howl escaped from his lips as he came, flooding the sheets, himself, and his lover's hand which had wrapped around him at some unknown point.

The stimulation of feeling that body convulsing around and beneath him pitched Remus over the edge, and for a while, all went black in that long-remembered state that had been called the small death. The last conscious thought he had there was nothing little about it. It was huge, all-encompassing--

Then he was gone.

**~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~**

"Mmmm...."

That was the first sound Remus registered when he regained consciousness. He dragged his eyes open, and fought against a yawn. At some point, he had slipped out of Sirius and was just now sprawled on top of him. After a moment, it occurred to him that he had no idea how long he had lost consciousness for, and started to move to grab at his wand.

"Remus?"

"Mmm?"

"Where're y'goin'?"

"To get my wand, Sirius. I'm not even going to get out of the bed."

"Why? Legs might go wobbly under you and sprawl you on the floor?"

"Cheeky git," Remus muttered fondly and moved to get the wand. After performing a slight Cleansing Charm, he put it away and curled up against Sirius again, relishing in the skin-on-skin contact that he hadn't expected to feel again.

"That was intense," he murmured after a moment.

"Went too long with too little," Sirius muttered. "I love Jamie, I always did, I always will, but I hate the decision we were forced into because of him. Not enough of you, Remus. I never was able to get enough."

"That went both ways, you know."

"I know..." Sirius said, then was quiet. "We needed this. We'll continue to need this."

"Yes."

"Even more because we need to be able to concentrate and I can't concentrate if I'm just thinking about what could have been. We have that now, we didn't have it then, but we have it now, unless..."

"Oh, don't start," Remus murmured in his ear, and Sirius shivered. "This was a strings-attached shag, and you know it."

"Oh, but what a shag it was."

"Shut up, and get some sleep. We'll talk more about this in the morning."

"How do you know it's not morning already?"

"Shh," he said and rolled Sirius so they could curl up together properly. "We'll worry about it later."

"Mmm..."

With that, he thought Sirius dozed off, and was on his way to following when he heard that voice break the half-asleep doze.

"This might be the first time I can believe in sleep without the nightmares."

"Shhh. We'll face the nightmares together, if you have them."

"And if I don't?"

"If you don't, well, then we'll just face the days ahead together."

That was good enough for Sirius, who finally fell asleep. Remus followed behind him, and knew even as he was dozing, that it would be the most sound sleep he'd had in years.

**~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~** ~ **~**

-End-


End file.
